St. Vital karate champ is the real deal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/08/2015 (4023 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The coaches have obviously been doing something right at our community centre on Dakota Street.

Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, who groomed his hockey skills as a youth at this very centre, brought the NHL Stanley Cup home at age 27 for the third time in 2015.

Is it any wonder that, after his first triumphant return in 2010, the City of Winnipeg renamed our club the Jonathan Toews Community Centre? His name is highlighted in white print on red atop the billboard on Dakota Street. Congratulations, Jonathan.

St. Vital, be proud.   

 
Kaylee Wilson is a young girl at JTCC, making waves in her chosen sport of karate. Kaylee, a bilingual Grade 12 student at College Jeanne-Sauve and a part-time waitress at Dakota House, earned her first degree black belt two years ago.  

In June Kaylee competed in Gatineau, Que., in the Karate Canada nationals and won three silver medals — a noteworthy feat.

She was selected for the 17th Pan-American Karate-Do Championships in Brazil but decided not to go.

“I kind of want to do really well,” she says. “(So I) will wait till I improve more.”

I asked her how she became focused on karate.

“My dad’s friend, Kelly Neale, holds a yondan (karate fourth degree black belt)). He is my sensei (teacher). I started karate at age 8 at the Dakota Karate Club and have practised year-round  in a group of about 20 ever since — twice a week in two one-hour sessions.”

The word “karate” means “the Japanese art of self-defence employing sharp blows and kicks.” In the self-defence course I took after I was widowed, we were taught to kick the assailant where it hurts the most and to poke hard at the eyes or nose — to disable the monster just long enough to make a get-away.

In Kaylee’s training, contact is not permitted, whether attacking or defending — but you must come very, very close for credits.

At school, Kaylee participated in basketball, badminton, track-and-field, and cross-country running.

This earned her the CJS 2014-15 athlete of the year award for Grade 12 girls and an athletics scholarship to the University of Manitoba.

At age 18, that’s a remarkable achievement.

Her work habits — her whole philosophy for living well — will stand her in good stead as she studies either optometry or ophthalmology.

We need committed people like Kaylee for leadership roles in the future.

Anne Yanchyshyn is a community correspondent for St. Vital.